1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to carriers for immobilization of physiologically active materials (hereinafter, "bio-active materials"), selective adsorbents, selective electrodes and chromatographic columns comprising said carriers and bio-active materials immobilized thereon. Such carriers for immobilization of a bio-active material immobilize the latter material thereon thereby allowing a specific bio-chemical reaction involving the bio-active material to take place thereon. The term "bio-active material" is used herein to mean any of tissues, cells, enzymes, antigens, antibodies, immune complexes, complements and other serum proteins or polysaccharides or complexes thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is known that a reaction of bio-active materials on an immobilization carrier enables a quantitative and selective determination of a substance which is reactive in the presence of certain antibodies or antigens either in vivo or in vitro, or a selective removal or withdrawal of certain substances in the course of a chemical reaction, and such reaction on a carrier can be utilized broadly in physiochemical and medical fields. Carriers of this type which have heretofore been commonly employed comprise porous glass or a high polymer substance, such as Sepharose.RTM. (an agarose gel in bead form, manufactured by Pharmacia Fin Chemicals, Sweden) polystyrene bead, and the like, in which functional groups capable of binding with molecules of a bio-active material have been incorporated. The use of such carriers has been limited since they are not specific enough to reject all substances other than the target bio-active material. Thus, when one attempts to introduce functional groups into such a carrier material and cause the target bio-active material to be bound thereto, the unreacted material adsorbed non-specifically thereon is not thoroughly removed but remains on the carrier. Moreover, when one conducts a reaction of such an immobilized bio-active material with a solution (inclusive of body fluids, e.g., blood, plasma, serum, urine) of another material (e.g. the substrate in the case of an enzymatic reaction or the antigen or antibody in an immunological reaction), the heretofore inevitable non-specific adsorption of substances other than desired materials occurs causing a reduction in the specificity of the reaction. Especially when the immobilized bio-active material is used in therapeutic applications, the unreacted material is transferred into the body as a heterologous substance, the blood coagulation factors and platelets are adsorbed to cause clotting or activate the lymphocyte system, with the result that this type of reaction has not been put into clinical practice.